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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Getting into IT

By Arianna Reiche

At the end of last year, companies expected to fill more graduate IT vacancies in 2012 than any other role bar finance positions, say graduate recruitment analysts, High Flyers, who interviewed 100 of the UK’s top graduate employers. So whether you have just received your computer science degree or completed an external software certification, now is the time to dive into the job market. Understanding the types of jobs awaiting you across IT and computing is the first step toward securing your ideal job.

Though tech positions are varied and often require interwoven skill sets, computing and IT jobs can be very broadly categorised into&colon; engineering, support, and development. IT recruiters tend to organise their trainees similarly. “Recruits on FDM’s IT consultancy graduate programme, for example, rotate around six departments&colon; Java and .Net development, software testing, application support, infrastructure support and project analysis,” says Louise Raycraft, FDM’s graduate recruitment representative. “These are the areas most desired by our clients.”

Software and application development using Java, .Net or other scripting languages are popular job roles in which programmers create new computer-based tools for both consumers (think of all the apps available on smartphones) and industry professionals. Software testing is pretty self-explanatory – the role involves detecting defects in a piece of software to better understand how well a product is working, and how much more time and money needs to be put into smoothing out functional problems.

In IT, infrastructure is the basic physical structure of an organisation. Someone working in infrastructure support, such as Keith Archer who is responsible for all of game publisher Activision Blizzard’s hard and software, would maintain the servers, connections between those servers, and internet connections. Like maintaining a city’s waterways, infrastructure support specialists support the skeleton that supports the whole system. Applications support is about looking after the systems that run on the infrastructure and roles typically require knowledge of software installation, how to back up hard drives, and the relationships between computer connections.

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Project analysis roles such as Andrew Robert’s, a developer for a web design company, require the employee to keep tabs on the development of a new tool&colon; what its users want to do with it, what it needs to look like and what needs to be achieved to get there. A good project analyst will have a clear overview of the design, strategy and business involved.

Get the tools

SQL, C++, C#, Java, and HTML5 are the bread and butter of modern programmers, and are ranked among the most sought after languages by employers according to independent UK market analysts IT Jobs Watch. These languages are independently listed on about 80,000 job ads and the average salary for jobs that require these languages comes in at a healthy £42,000. Using a language with confidence should be at the core of your computer science skills, and a graduate will ideally have at least one language that they are fluent in.

Many languages are readily available for download, often for free. Python, with its simple, intuitive interface has made it a favourite free language among young developers and is a good choice if you’re looking to impress employers in new media and early-stage start-ups. Structured Query Language (SQL) is a common language for database analysis, engineering and business intelligence.

SQL is long established – something to bring up if your interviewers are veteran techies – but its protégé, NoSQL, now has a substantial following. NoSQL gives developers more freedom and the ability to scale up their applications in ways that SQL cannot. NoSQL tends to be preferred by companies dealing with big data and cloud services. For data specialists, Oracle, ETL, and Data Warehouse were ranked among the most in-demand tools in 2012’s first quarter, according to IT Jobs Watch.

Windows, UNIX, and Linux remain the operating systems most advisable for job-seekers to develop fluency in. UNIX is a core operating system used in big data centres, and its sister-system Linux is what underlies big hitters like Amazon, Google and Facebook.

Get qualified

A computer science degree isn’t the only avenue into a high-earning career in IT. A recognised professional qualification proves to employers that you are willing to take the time to hone your expertise, and professional registration with the Chartered Engineers (CEng) or a certification from Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB), Cisco Systems, Infinidox, or the widely used SAS will make your CV stand out.

While major software companies will typically offer in-person certification courses in large cities around the UK, computer-based certification is becoming an increasingly popular option for busy professionals. The HP Institute is one such provider, offering a “remote labs experience, giving students virtual access to the up to date equipment they will find in the workplace”.

The Chartered Institute for IT maintains that no doors are shut to jobseekers without a formal degree in IT. “Many companies recruit graduates with non-IT related subjects who will undertake additional IT specific training through post-graduate or professional training courses,” they advise. “Whichever option taken, the key to improving the chances of being recruited is to achieve the best degree possible and take advantage of any work experience offered as part of the course or during your vacations.”

Stay human

When it comes to finding a job in IT, some nuggets of advice crop up again and again&colon; stay informed, develop your own personal projects, and keep your secondary skills, such as mathematics or formal logic, sharp. KhanAcademy.org is a wildly popular non-profit learning portal, with free tutorial videos in everything from time-displacement physics to macroeconomics – really useful if you are interested in applying your computing skills to a new area. And don’t neglect personal interests that make you stand out from the crowd, such as graphic design or website design.

Once you’ve landed a job the need to stay on top of new trends becomes even more vital. Unsurprisingly, the professional community is increasingly turning to online media to stay current. “There’s a massive online community of developers and there are some key people really worth monitoring,” says Nick Berry, a senior developer at software development company McKinsey Solutions. “Twitter makes it a lot easier – you can subscribe to whoever is relevant to you. Specifically, Scott Guthrie (@scottgu) is generally quite a good source, and Paul Irish (@paul_irish) is good for more front-end trends.”

For interviews, be prepared for some unconventional practices, says Berry. “I have been asked to sit in front of someone and do a programming test. That kind of threw me. It’s not something you’re used to doing with someone sitting over your shoulder watching.”

As with most industries, it’s not just your knowledge and technical prowess that counts but also your soft skills. “Even if you can code applications with the best of them,” says Brian Beneda of HP, “if you don’t also have the ability to translate those skills into some sort of demonstrated business value for your employer, it’s very easy to get off into the weeds.” Training courses at the HP Institute emphasise the importance of business acumen and good communication along with the hard technical skills. “The really valuable people are the ones who can look across the technology discipline, and translate the business strategy into a multi-vendor, multi-strategy solution,” he says.